Позитивные изменения, Том 3 №1, 2023. Positive changes. Volume 3, Issue 1 (2023)

Successful operation of the Soccer Academy in Eskisehir was a case study that Actifit can use to further promote its “Girls on the Soccer Field” program.

Since no one lectures on gender inequality in Eskisehir on a fee basis, it is curious that raising parents’ awareness of gender discrimination has received zero monetary value.

The project SROI was then calculated based on the monetary estimates obtained, both for the project as a whole and for each individual group of stakeholders. The overall SROI for the project was 12.45 – that is, for every Turkish Lira (TL) invested in the project, 12.45 TL worth of social effect was produced. Of these 12.45 TL, the girls’ results accounted for 20 % (2.43 TL) and the parents’ results accounted for 38 % (4.68 TL).

PROJECT EVALUATION

There are several different but similar approaches to evaluating projects. We prefer the one specifically described by the term ‘evaluation’.

This approach features a set of analytical activities that are conducted to provide project's decision-makers with the information they need regarding the project. The decision-makers in this case are usually either project managers or donors.

This approach assumes that a monitoring and evaluation system is developed as early as at the project planning phase. The system is based on the results of stakeholder analysis and a description of the project mechanism, which explains how the implementation of project activities will lead to the achievement of expected results (this description is commonly referred to as the theory of change or logical framework of the project).

Accordingly, using this approach, a stakeholder analysis of the “Girls on the Soccer Field” project would have had to be conducted as early as the planning stage. After that, it would be necessary to build a change map or a logical framework that would explain how the project activities would eventually translate to the progress towards its goals. Building such a map could also help to specify the goals (final expected results) of the project. For example, one of the goals is formulated as follows: “Through soccer, raise awareness of gender equality and promote greater participation of girls in sports.” In developing a change map, one would need to decide what chain of changes connects a presentation on gender equality for girls’ parents to this goal: for example, more informed parents would support their daughters’ desire to play sports. At this point, one may deem it reasonable that the results of the presentation would be better placed in a separate chain of changes and isolated as a separate project goal.

Based on the map of expected changes, the project authors determine what information will be needed to track the progress of project implementation and achievement of its goals. The next step is to decide who, when and how will collect, analyze and use this information.

The key task of evaluation is to help project managers understand whether the intended mechanism for achieving change is actually being implemented. To manage the process of change, it is very important to know where there are failures in the process. Accordingly, the monitoring and evaluation system is designed to identify these failures. In addition, project management now pays a lot of attention to unplanned results, whether positive or negative. This is why data collection for project evaluation could be much the same as in the SROI evaluation described above. But the analysis would have a clear focus on the degree to which the planned results are being achieved, and which of the unplanned results are positive and negative.

It should be noted that any SROI calculation or another form of monetary evaluation can be incorporated in the project evaluation process if decision makers need this information.

EXPERT ASSESSMENT